Shopping

For many of Brooklyn’s local retailers and some national chain retailers, the holiday season is the crucial “make-or-break” period that defines a successful year. In fact, four-week span between Black Friday and the end of December accounts for half of some businesses’ yearly revenue. However, with consumer confidence at midrange measures, and a sluggish economic recovery, it remains to be seen whether retailers will have much to celebrate come New Year’s. Comment.

Shopping

It’s Only My Opinion

The war on Christmas is over, and we can get back to normal. That is, if you agree with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who has renamed the 30-foot-tall “holiday tree” in the Rotunda of the state capitol the “Christmas tree.” Yes, the evergreen tree decorated with ornaments is again officially a symbol of Christmas, in spite of the fact that we observe several holidays around the same time. The menorah and the dreidel remind us of Hanukkah. An ear of corn, a cup, seven candles in a candelabra and fruits on a mat are in honor of Kwanza. Comments (7).

Downtown

We asked the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and a Downtown activist group for dueling op-ed pieces about the gentification of Downtown’s main shopping strip. Only the activists accepted our invitation. Too bad. Comments (2).

Downtown

After too many years of decline, Fulton Mall is undergoing a historic transformation. This area brings back so many memories for me, and I’m sure for many of you here tonight who are of a “certain age.” I can still remember my mother dragging me to stores like Mays, Martin’s, E.J. Korvette, A&S, Chock Full o’ Nuts and Needicks. Comments (1).

Speak Out

Hundreds of thousands of dollars were cemented into W. 20th St. at the foot of the Coney Island Boardwalk in the late 1960s, when dollars were scarce, but the Borough President wanted an ice skating rink, and in this case he got what he wanted — almost. Comments (2).

A Britisher’s View

Features

This newspaper has reported that the state has “nixed” the schedule repairs of the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway, and that the feds have “pulled the plug” on the reconstruction of the triple-cantilevered highway beneath the Promenade overlooking the half-finished Brooklyn Bridge Park. Comment.

Features

The opening of a new bridge is great news for residents and businesses in the North Country who depend upon this bridge and have been inconvenienced by its closure. Today’s announcement demonstrates that, once again, New York State go Comment.

Big Screecher

I’m madder than a squirrel who’s lost the map to his nuts after spending all summer hiding them over the fact the media today focuses all of its attention on the bad things that young people do, instead of pointing out all the positives that are begging to be written about! Comment.

Features

Last week, the City Council voted to send a home rule message to the state Senate. It is asking for the right to allow residential parking permits to be issued, for a fee, by neighborhood. This plan is nothing more than another tax on residents. Comments (3).

Features

For years, neighborhoods like Downtown have been clamoring for residential parking permits. Residents spend hours circling for spots near their homes, where commuters often leave their cars on the street and take public transportation. In fact, a Downtown Brooklyn Council study found that more than 40 percent of on-street parked vehicles in the neighborhood are commuter cars. Comments (2).

It’s Only My Opinion

I wanted to know how my income compared to the rest of the country so I googled the question and was directed to the Kiplinger website. You might be interested in knowing that the top one percent of wage earners — STOP! Comment.

A Britisher’s View

Blue-hoo! Our columnist thinks the rogue’s gallery of cops is getting noxiously prolific — with hundreds of NYPD officers arrested so far this year for allegedly exploiting their badges for personal gain. Comment.

Features

When I founded Success Academies in 2006, I set out to create rigorous, high-performing public schools that I’d send my own children to in a heartbeat. Five years later, Success Academies is doing just that, serving 3,500 students at very high levels in the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn. It’s with this same motivation to provide even more families with great public school options that Success Academies plans to open in Cobble or Boerum Hill next August. Comment.

Features

I can understand good folks making poor investments. The intentions of the Solyndra loan of half a billion bucks were good, but as we already know, the road to hell is paved — awe, never mind. Comment.

A Britisher’s View

The now fabulously-funded Occupy Wall Street crowd is a beer-bottle toss away from becoming its own nightmare — a corporation! Our columnist hopes the movement holds itself to the same scruples it demands from the targets of its wrath. Comments (2).

Downtown

Now that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has agreed to give up its lease on the city-owned 370 Jay St. building, the question keeps coming up: What should be done with this eyesore of a building? Comment.

A Britisher’s View

Our columnist says Councilman Jumaane Williams should have forgot about the color of his skin when he publicly derided the NYPD over his treatment during the West Indian Day Parade, and should have focused on the rank-and-file cops’ failure to adhere to the department’s standard of Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect. Comments (2).

It’s Only My Opinion

Not for Nuthin’

What was I doing on Sept. 11 2001? Most assuredly the same thing that I did on Sept. 10, 2001 but even more assuredly not the same thing that I would do on Sept. 12, 2001 or ever after. Ten years on and the memories of 9-11 are still as sharp and crisp as they were that day. Comment.

Features

Features

I had the great – and solemn – honor of chairing the citizens group which erected the first 9-11 memorial in the city — the “Beacon Memorial” on Veterans Memorial Pier at 69th Street, which faces lower Manhattan. It reads: “Brooklyn Remembers … For Those Lost on September 11, 2001.” I pray, and would prefer, not to have to do that again. Comment.

Features

Whether private, Orthodox Jewish “Shomrim” (“guards” in Hebrew) may serve any useful function is not the question. Let us assume they do. The question – which ought to answer itself – is whether New York City taxpayers should be helping to fund organizations that 1) encroach on the purview of official law enforcement agencies, 2) favor the interests of one specific community, and 3) may well suppress criminal complaints for ostensibly religious reasons. Comment.

It’s Only My Opinion

Features

History was made last month when New York became the largest state in the nation to confer all of the rights, benefits and responsibilities of civil marriage upon same-sex unions. Same-sex couples — some who have been together for decades — will soon be able to get married and raise families knowing that their unions and their children will be protected under New York State law. Comment.

Features

I was very interested to attend a special meeting of Community Board 10 Traffic and Transportation Committee earlier this summer, where Sen. Marty Golden (R– Bay Ridge) proposed creating a pedestrian mall on Friday nights in the summer on Third Avenue in Bay Ridge. Comment.

Not for Nuthin’

June, 2011

Features

The truth is the truth, no matter how you slice it. Last week, Ryan Dunn of Jackass fame, died in a fiery crash. The accident was attributed to Dunn’s intoxicated state (his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit), while he was driving his Porsche 911 GT3 at an excessive rate of speed (reportedly in excess of 110 miles an hour). Comment.

Features

Their supreme sacrifices are immortalized in our hearts, and now also on a street sign in Red Hook. Engine 202 and Ladder 101 Firefighters Joseph Gullickson, Brian Cannizzaro, Salvatore Calabro, Thomas Kennedy, Patrick Byrne, Joseph Maffeo and Terence McShane rushed to answer the call on 9-11 with an obligation to duty that only super-humans who storm burning buildings without a thought to their own safety can fully understand. Comment.

Features

Wow! What a week this has been. It started on Monday when I received an e-mail from Caroline Flynn, the clinical facilitator for the Irish National Lottery Online Draw. I don’t know what that means, but someone with a title like that must be important and wouldn’t waste time delivering an insignificant message, so I read on. Comment.

Features

Not for nuthin, but what grown man cannot state with “certitude” and identify his own wiener?And who uses the word “certitude” nowadays, anyway? How about “certainly,” “without a shadow of a doubt,” or the ubiquitous “No way!” But “with certitude?” Really now. Comment.

Features

Features

For months or more, the future of the world-renowned Riegelmann Boardwalk of Coney Island has been poppin’ its nails in the controversial sands-of-time, as verbs and vowels have shredded the salt-tasty airs of “America’s Seashore.” Comment.

May, 2011

Features

Features

For the past 13 years, from pre-K on up, I have awaited June and the end of the school year with both joy (“Hey! Bri passed and she’s promoted!”) and trepidation (“Hey! September is two months away. What are we going to do until then?”) Comment.

Features

Features

What better way to stage a comeback than to have a scandal? And what better kind of scandal than sex and a love child — with the maid! Aaahnold really knows how to stoke the star-making machinery. Comment.

Features

In my growing up years, whenever I would obsess over some tiny matter, my mom would always say to me, “Don’t sweat the small stuff. If you have to worry about something, make sure it’s big, like the end of the world.” Comment.

Features

The CBS-New York Times poll also has the “No” number at 70 percent. An NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll? Sixty-three percent. Reuters? Sixty-nine percent. And Pew research has the number at 73 percent. Comment.

Features

One of the few occasions that we left our Willow Wood, a spacious, serene area, was when Estelle Horwitz, widow of our past city councilman Sam Horwitz visited. She had gotten authority to join a gathered group of past and present Sea Gate residents who were partying at a Floridian luncheon at a palm-studded Deersfield Beach lakeside hotel. Comment.

Features

I’m so upset with the sad state of our streets and sidewalks, I’m writing about them again! So buckle up and hold onto your hats, because you’re about to get another mouthful from the Screecher! Comment.

Features

Another 30-percent-off coupon from Kohl’s arrived this morning. So guess where we spent the afternoon? While my roommate was busy over in the women’s section, I, once again, was busy doing research in the men’s. Last time, I investigated where the products were made. Today my focus was on the brands being sold there. Comment.

Features

Valiant Japanese survivors of the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami can give all of us a lesson in composure and civility as they try to piece together their torn lives in the midst of one of the worst disasters in the history of the world. Comment.

Features

It is no secret that the Community Education District 21, of which I am a former member and maintain close ties with, is fighting a losing battle against the Department of Education and the Bloomberg Administration over charter schools. The city is determined to shoehorn the Coney Island Prep charter school into a Department of Education building, sharing precious space and resources with one of our public schools, and it’s not going to stop until it gets that job done. Its latest target is IS 303. Comment.

Features

Valiant Japanese survivors of the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami can give all of us a lesson in composure and civility as they try to piece together their torn lives in the midst of one of the worst disasters in the history of the world. Comment.

March, 2011

Features

Pulling off the Bensonhurst West End Community Council 50th Anniversary Gala was a bit of a miracle. Of course, preparations began at the beginning of the year, when we selected our award winners and confirmed the date and caterer, settling on the exquisite Riviera, right here in Coney Island. The invitations were printed and sent. We were expecting less than the 320 guests we got for last year’s event — far short of the 360 capacity of the Riv. Comment.

Features

Just because a spoken sentence ends in a raised voice or a printed one ends with an eroteme (that’s fancy-speak for a question mark), does that necessarily indicate that one is seeking information or testing knowledge? In most cases, yes, but there are also instances when a particular question is asked merely to make a statement. Here are some from the notes sitting on my desk. Comment.

Features

Will Amy sleep with Ricky? Will Adrian say yes to Ben? Will Ben be happy with a yes? These are the questions that fill the hearts and minds of every American teenager (and a few of us that ought to know better), as the fourth season of “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” comes back to the tube. I have to admit, I’m addicted to the show myself. Comment.

Features

Worried Flatlands resident Joan Heaney — née Ikeda — was overjoyed to get in touch with her 86-year-old brother, Kuji, in Tokyo last week after the monster earthquake and tsunami clobbered Japan, shifting the coastline 2.4 meters, sweeping away entire villages, plunging the island nation into a nuclear crisis and killing nearly 7,000 people, with as many still missing. Comment.

Features

With a stirring eloquent welcome from Rabbi Alvin Kass of the East Midwood Jewish Center to start the festivities, Doctor Strauss’ beautiful bride of 65 years, Shirley, controlled the crowd as only she could. After all, she raised her son Elton to became the head of Mount Sinai’s Orthopedic Division, and daughter Bonnie to become one of the first female wizards of Wall Street. Comment.

Features

One of the big differences between Gov. Scott Walker’s bill before the state legislature in Wisconsin and Gov. John Kasich’s bill in Ohio is that the Wisconsin bill does not apply to cops and firefighters. I have a completely different feeling about cops and firemen than I do about teachers, sanitation workers and pretty much all other civil servants. Comment.

Features

The powers of the Yankee Dollar are too visible on our local main streets where neighborhood stores have lost their shoppers to raiding intruders — the brazen mall-builders who suck the dollars to the roadside traffic jams. Comment.

Features

Features

My roommate and I are two of the few people who travel to Nevada to visit cities other than Las Vegas. On our annual visit to our friends who reside there, we take time to drive around the state. We’ve toured the cities of Reno, Laughlin, Henderson, Carson, Paradise and many more. Comments (1).

Features

When I received the invitation for his 90th birthday party — a surprise party at the East Midwood Jewish Center — I immediately replied, because Dr. Strauss was more than my doctor, he was my confidant, and has been my friend ever since I came to visit my cousins in Bensonhurst — which was considered the country for this boy from Little Italy — in my teens. Comments (1).

Features

February, 2011

Features

For those of you with a teenager in the house, the bait-and-switch tactic is not a new concept. In fact, most teens have been using this technique for so long, they’ve created an elaborate art form. It starts out with “I’m going to Ann’s house, OK?” You say, yes, you like Ann. Comment.

Features

Every two weeks, when I pick up my clothing from the dry cleaners, I get a dirty look from the gal behind the counter. I don’t like her.She staples those little numbered tags right inside the crotch of my pants but never closes that staple tight. Ouch! Comment.

Features

Randi Garay, this year’s Bensonhurst West End Civic Association’s Parent of the Year, was born to Ilene and Ned Kuskin, lived on Bay Parkway with her sisters until they moved to Harway Terrace where her grandparents Sylvia and Harold Feinberg lived. Comment.

Features

Sen. Charles Schumer asked for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to release 30 million to 40 million barrels of oil to help Americans pay for the skyrocketing costs of heating oil and gas. He said, “I think it’s clear to anyone who drives or owns a home that prices are going through the roof. And Americans are being sopped with a triple whammy this winter: a soft economy, rising unemployment and now higher gasoline prices.” Comment.

January, 2011

Features

Gravesend native Dominick A. DDominick became an educator after a successful 17-year career in business. He took the helm of Intermediate School 228 in his native Gravesend in 2007, transforming the 80-year-old school into one of the most innovative middle schools in New York City. He aggressively sought to make David A. Boody the city Comment.

Features

Features

The Bensonhurst West End Community Council is celebrating its 50th Anniversary on March 24 at the exquisite Riviera at the corner of Stillwell and Neptune avenues in Coney Island. I spotlight our 2011 honorees in these columns to show why they so deserve their awards. Executive board member Michel Rizzotto nominated Frank Carone as our Business Man of the Year. Comment.

Features

Ten minutes after the tragedy in Tucson hit, the left wingers were out there on the airways attempting to gain political capital on the crisis. Shame on it, and good for America for not buying its bovine excrement. The latest poll results are in and weChris Matthews, a left wing, bomb-throwing, trouble-maker himself, was busy the other night focusing negative comments in the direction of Mark Levin and Michael Savage. Comment.

Features

The sad news of the premature death of former Rep. Steve Solarz (1940–2010) stirred up many personal memories I have of the very amiable, soft-spoken legislator, who was also our former state assemblyman and state senator. Comment.

Features

Features

On the ferry coming to the office, I stood on the prow watching the harbor traffic. Not too far in the distance I saw a little white speck heading in our direction, growing ever larger as it neared. All at once, Euclidian geometry popped into my head. Will a boat (with me on it!), sailing at x rate of speed and travelling in a north-easterly direction, collide with another vessel sailing at y rate of speed and traveling in a north-westerly direction? , but itjdelbuono@cnglocal.com Comment.

Features

Features

Whenever my Aunt Mary would visit, she would organize my stash of plastic shopping bags under my kitchen sink. She would fold them and put them in neat little bundles secured together with rubber bands., but if one day of bundling plastic bags and organizing the closet can induce such calmness, putting the whole house in order should put me in a coma. Thanks, Aunt Mary! Jdelbuono@cnglocal.com Comment.

Features

Features

Last week I offered some of the best quotes of 2010. In the interest of space I pared my list down and am now looking at several more that I deleted which are informative, entertaining, and sure to stimulate conversation when it slows down at your next cocktail party. Let’s start with an easy one for those of us who are grandparents. Comment.